Zogby: Obama Lead Widens to 6.2 Points

A slight gain in percentage points by Barack Obama combined with a slight loss by John McCain has propelled Obama further into the lead, the latest Zogby figures show. The widening of the lead places Obama outside the margin of error.

The latest tracking poll by Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby had McCain trailing Obama 42.8 percent to 49 percent, respectively. Both Obama and McCain continue to do well in winning support from voters in their own respective parties with Obama winning 86 percent from Democrats, and McCain winning 87 percent from Republicans.

However, Obama holds a sizable portion of conservative support — 19 percent — with McCain holding 72 percent of the conservative vote.

Among independent voters, Obama held a 17-point lead, and Obama had a 10 percentage point lead over McCain with early voters — 52 percent to 42 percent, respectively. Early voters represented 7 percent of the poll’s sampling.

The tracking poll was conducted by telephone and included a sample of 1,208 likely voters collected over four days from Oct. 10-13, 2008. The poll carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.